


Childhood Traumas

by mystiri1



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Allergies, Gen, Phobias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-30 22:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1024195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mystiri1/pseuds/mystiri1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney had good reason to be afraid of citrus. He had good reasons to be afraid of certain other things, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Childhood Traumas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [debirlfan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/debirlfan/gifts).



Mckay had good reason to be afraid of citrus. The discovery of his allergy was one of the most traumatic events of his young life: feeling his airways close so that he struggled to breathe, eyes prickling and swelling shut, not even sure what was happening to him. And although his parents knew of his allergy after that, it didn't prevent him encountering it again: either because someone who didn't know gave him something with the deadly fruit, or sometimes because his parents simply... forgot.   
  
He might have understood what was happening to him after that first allergic reaction, but that didn't make it any less frightening, especially as it began to sink in that it really could kill him. (Small children, even the very smart ones, don't have a terribly firm grasp of their own mortality.) In the end, he decided it was his own task to police what he ate, to make sure that people didn't unintentionally feed him a lethal last meal.  
  
It was quite frustrating when Rodney knew precisely how serious the consequences could be, yet other people didn't really take it all that seriously. So he learned to be quite vocal and explicit about it. If people thought he was exaggerating the matter - well, as long as they didn't try to feed him anything with citrus in it, he really didn't care what they thought.  
  
There was another traumatic experience in his childhood that left behind a lingering phobia, but it was one he definitely didn't talk about. It wasn't as if it was the kind of thing that could impact a mission, after all, and everybody deserved to keep some childhood secrets.  
  
It wasn't as if he'd bought into any of the cutesy stuff that went with most children's views of rabbits: the Easter Bunny, Bugs, or delinquent young rabbits in little blue coats. No, Rodney understood perfectly well that they were a type of mammal from the family _Leporidae_ , that lived on a diet mostly of grasses and leafy plants (or pet store pellets), _not_ carrots, and actually excreted some of what they ate for the sole purpose of digesting it again. But the domestic ones he found at the pet store looked soft and fluffy, and... appealing, in that way that only small furry animals could. Besides, he'd read that they could be house-trained, and while his mother might be allergic to cats, she'd never said anything about rabbits.  
  
Rodney never found out if his mother's allergies extended to rabbits, because it seemed only sensible to him to make sure he got a sociable rabbit. To establish this, he made the mistake of picking one up while the sales assistant wasn't looking.  
  
First off, it was heavier than it looked. This wouldn't have been an issue if it hadn't immediately started struggling, and Rodney had to tighten his grip to avoid dropping it, which in turn upset the rabbit even further. What followed was a blur of claws and teeth, as being a prey animal did not preclude rabbits from being vicious little beasts. The double incisors designed to chew vegetation proved to be backed by considerable pressure of the jaw and the powerful hind legs could rake multiple bloody lines down exposed skin in no time at all.  
  
Rodney knew that cats could scratch and bite, but rabbits were supposed to be harmless. And it had happened so quickly, so that he didn't even remember much beyond struggling and panic and pain. He never bought into any of the cutesy bunny stuff afterwards, either, and remained... not _scared_ as such, but definitely wary of rabbits in general. The cute, fluffy appearance was just a lie designed to lure people in.  
  
Fortunately, avoiding rabbits was not really that hard to do.  
  
Even though they met many analogous animals in Pegasus, he'd never seen anything that looked all that much like a rabbit. Small, herbivorous animals, yes, even one or two that bounced rather than scurried about. Rodney encountered most of them after Ronon had killed them for the eveniing meal, and it was hard to be all that frightened of something that was roasting over the fire, and smelled delicious besides.  
  
Until P3X-542.  
  
They'd made it several miles into the apparently empty, rolling grasslands before they appeared over a nearby hill, racing straight towards them. Big, floppy ears: check. Powerful hind legs for hopping: check. Fluffy cottontails: check. Sharp front teeth: check.  
  
Soft white fur and glaring red eyes: also check. In fact, Rodney would later swear that they glowed.   
  
It might have been a panicked stampede or a predatory charge, but Rodney didn't care as he ran for the 'gate. And he was relieved to see that his team weren't fooled by cutesy bunny propaganda - well, John at least; he'd have to ask Teyla at some point if they had stories about cute little rabbits or rabbit-analogues in Pegasus - and were running alongside him. While Rodney was willing to do many things for his team, facing down killer rabbits was not one of them.  
  
Really, he thought, stumbling slightly as the ground trembeld underneath them, discovering Pegasus had rabbits was bad enough. But making them six feet tall?  
  
That was overkill.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: SGA, McKay, Citrus isn't the only thing he's afraid of - but then, they seldom encounter bunny rabbits.


End file.
